SMUSD employees to get 4 percent raises

SAN MARCOS -- San Marcos Unified School District trustees on
Monday are expected to approve a one-year contract extension for
district employees that would include a roughly 4 percent pay
raise.

The extension would also allow the district to limit some of the
cost for health care benefits in the future.

"We got some long-term savings and the associations got a nice
raise -- that's what we were hoping to accomplish," said Len Judd,
assistant superintendent of human resources.

The agreement calls for a 3.91 percent raise for teachers, a
4.53 percent raise for classified employees -- personnel such as
secretaries and janitors -- and a 3.75 percent hike for district
managers who don't belong to a union, including Superintendent
Kevin Holt, principals, directors and administrative
assistants.

The raises were based on a decade-old formula that maintains the
district's position of having the fourth-highest salary and
benefits packages among the 11 unified school districts in the
county, after Encinitas, Poway and Oceanside, said Judd.

The district's three-year contracts with its two employee unions
expired June 30 and the tentative agreement is slated for approval
by the school board when it meets Monday. The board meets at 6:30
p.m. at the North County Regional Education Center, 255 Pico Ave.,
Suite 250, in San Marcos.

The tentative agreements were ratified June 1 by the San Marcos
Educators Association, which represents teachers, and on June 6 by
the California School Employees Association, which represents
classified employees. The agreement will run from the first of this
month to June 30, 2008.

Pia Harris-Ebert, president of the teachers union, said that
about 96 percent of the union's nearly 900 members supported the
agreement.

"Our members accepted it with a lot of enthusiasm," Harris-Ebert
said Friday. "We've always had a very cooperative relationship with
the district. We're looking forward to working with the district in
the positive manner that we have done for so many years."

Teachers' salaries are based on years of experience and the
number of units completed in college.

A first-year San Marcos teacher with no experience will make
$34,939 under the tentative agreement, compared with $33,624 last
year. A teacher with 31 years of experience will earn $88,329,
compared with $85,005 last year.

The contract extension also calls for the district to continue
to cover all health care benefits to employees, said Judd. San
Marcos Unified is one of 10 districts in San Diego County that
provides full benefits to its nearly 1,300 qualified employees with
no employee contribution.

"We have a lot of perks to attract very qualified employees,"
said Judd.

The district currently pays $11,690 per employee for health
benefits, including medical, dental, vision and life insurance,
although Judd said that under the tentative agreement, union
members may end up picking up any increases in health care benefit
costs after the 2007-08 school year.